We hit Valley Forge on our way out of Philly the first morning of the overcast weather that followed us pretty much until Kentucky. For those of you not completely brushed up on your Revolutionary War info, Valley Forge is where the encampment of Washington's Army was over the bitter winter of 1777-1778. Also, we apparently weren't the only ones who thought to get our history dork on that day...when we were sitting in the little chapel on the site watching the stereotypical brief Nat'l Park informational video discussing the historical relevance of the site, Dale's friend Shawn from the U of A (currently residing in Hoboken, NJ) strolled in with his girlfriend. Its crazy how teensy the world is.
From Valley Forge, we made our way down to Gettysburg for a night of camping in the beautiful Michaux State Forest followed by a day of exploration and an evening of couchsurfing in the quaint little college town. Fun fact: Gettysburg kind of has a bit of a hipster 20-somethings art and music scene...who knew? In any case, we stayed with a very sweet young couple, and had an awesome night over local wine, rolled cigarettes, and homemade pizza.
The following morning we embarked upon a self-guided tour of the enormous Gettysburg battlefield, which is spattered for miles with hundreds of enormous marble monuments commemorating the fallen troops (both Confederate and Union, which is pretty cool) of the vicious 3 day battle. It was an awesome experience to do it right, especially having Jimmy in tow with all of his historical facts to chip in...next time, we're charging for tours. (for you Rumps and Riggins', you may recognize a certain b&b in our slew of pictures below...)
Upon leaving Gettysburg, we made our way down to the battlefield of Antietam. Just so happens, it was the 149th anniversary of the battle. The site was bumping, and there were lots of reenactments and demonstrations to feed our inner nerd.
Pictures to illustrate:
Valley Forge
Gettysburg
Antietam
No comments:
Post a Comment